Abiomed, a provider of heart support technologies, has narrowed its net losses in the third quarter of 2010, which ended Dec. 31, 2009.

Pfizer has reported positive financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2009, recording only a slight uptick for Lipitor.

To add to the ongoing drama circulating around the St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md., last week Maryland attorneys filed a class action lawsuit against the facility after 369 patients received notifications saying that they may have received unwarranted cardiac stents.

Impella heart pump manufacturer Abiomed has partnered with Opsens to integrate its fiber optic sensor into the Abiomed catheter to provide blood pressure measurements.

The FDA approved the third thienopyridine agent, prasugrel (Effient, Eli Lilly/Daiichi Sankyo), in July 2009, challenging the U.S. market dominance of clopidogrel (Plavix, Bristol Myers Squibb/Sanofi Aventis). Yet, some cardiologists are being cautious about rapid, widespread adoption, and uptake has been slower than expected. Meanwhile, other optionssuch as reversible agentsloom on the horizon.

Even though manual compression dates back to the 1950s, the adoptioan of vascular closure devices (VCDs) is rapidly growing, despite modest comparative research. Nevertheless, the extant researchand anecdotal experienceis helping to define best practices for this evolving field.

Abbott Laboratories and its subsidiaries have posted a slight uptick of net earnings by 0.2 percent in the 2009 fourth quarter ($1.54 billion), compared with the prior-year quarter; and declared a larger growth earnings gap of 17.7 percent for the 2009 fiscal year ($5.75 billion), compared with the previous year.

Moving to expand its peripheral vascular disease (PVD) portfolio, Medtronic has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Invatec, a developer of medical technologies for the interventional treatment of cardiovascular disease, and two affiliated companies.